![](0.gif)
THE
A.B.C.
OF
WRITING
AND OTHER POEMS,
excerpts
![](0.gif)
i.
![](0.gif)
cambridge.
![](0.gif)
where.
![](0.gif)
the walking gulls. starting up and dreaming all over again
![](0.gif)
that's very difficult to do.
![](0.gif)
put on my new second-hand green chiffon and black dress.
![](0.gif)
it has a little bolero. the bodice is chiffon (soft) and the skirt is like tapestry
![](0.gif)
(harsh), or a priest's chasuble, black patterned with little bright blue, gentian
![](0.gif)
blue, verdant green, vermilion or cadmium red flowers set in gold thread.
![](0.gif)
I am inordinately fond of it.
![](0.gif)
thread.
![](0.gif)
bed, light in the bay-window, kohlrabi clumps in the half-dug veg. patch, white
![](0.gif)
cupboard full of singular clothes none fitting me.
![](0.gif)
bed. on the floor. none more. I walk
![](0.gif)
to the record store, bouncing on my soles. none more
![](0.gif)
'per ch'io te sopra' I wanted these words
![](0.gif)
I saw them
![](0.gif)
one third way down the right hand
![](0.gif)
page in THE PARADISE and did not have
![](0.gif)
THE PARADISE I knew
![](0.gif)
I am not there--
![](0.gif)
Place of the dream and run-to-seed brussel-sprouts
![](0.gif)
Thread how exact a sighting of the rats lake waters
![](0.gif)
While 'the rewarded conscious self' and ego understands
![](0.gif)
Fufilment the 'unconscious can't invent' / arrange
![](0.gif)
*
? to signify what IS requires an act of daily phenomenonogical daring in any order
![](0.gif)
and no little crudity
![](0.gif)
*
![](0.gif)
STORY ? invent a her/story REMEMBERING ?
![](0.gif)
AND. little words, she said. long ago. what is
![](0.gif)
the point of naming things. either a name is adequate
![](0.gif)
or it is not and if it is not repeating it will not help
![](0.gif)
and if it is why repeat it
![](0.gif)
t.
![](0.gif)
there will be no editing of this writing which is not to say there is no
![](0.gif)
censorship for the invigilator still sits. h/she has brought back the S.P.G.
![](0.gif)
you told me. undercover agents are everywhere. give me your hand to hold.
the display by the state is on these streets today your streets today our streets--
![](0.gif)
on your doorstep if there is no broken glass, no blood have they been ?
![](0.gif)
u.
![](0.gif)
a pre-emptive strike by the invigilator.
![](0.gif)
blow-job from a new direction.
![](0.gif)
leave undone
![](0.gif)
choosing his/her words carefully.
![](0.gif)
I lie by your side. It is morning in south-east London.
![](0.gif)
I lie. By your side it is morning-moving. in. south-east London.
![](0.gif)
v.
![](0.gif)
what makes the house quiet.
![](0.gif)
it is morning. they are at work. are you asleep
![](0.gif)
?
![](0.gif)
w.
![](0.gif)
dual sign. pointing. as.
![](0.gif)
as ? nothing, sshh, nothing about,
![](0.gif)
lurking. Ecrire ? Mais si j'écrivais "JE", qui serais-je ?
![](0.gif)
you havent the same name or city two years running laughed my friends,
![](0.gif)
keeping ahead of the debt-collectors eh ? something like that I smiled.
![](0.gif)
Plusieurs, simultanée, impure.
![](0.gif)
L'écriture isnt it the game of Truth ?
![](0.gif)
Truth isnt it whole ?
![](0.gif)
Isnt that everyone's game ?
![](0.gif)
well, maybe.
Wendy Mulford is now writing a book on Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland, 1930-1950, for Pandora Press. A collection of poems, 1980-84, will be published by Loxwood-Stoneleigh this year.
The A.B.C. of Writing and Other Poems
was published by Torque Editions, Southampton, England, 1985.